An arcade is an area, such as a room, store, or building, with several arcade games arranged for play by users. Arcade games are game devices that generally operate on a pay to play basis, wherein a user must provide some form of monetary payment to the machine in order to play a game associated with the machine. Such game devices include, for example, mechanical games wherein the operator physically manipulates a mechanical mechanism in order to play the game, electromechanical games, which include both mechanical and electrical components manipulated by the user during play of the game, and electrical games, such as video games and other substantially purely electrical games. In all of these types of games, some sort of monetary payment must be received by the game device before the user can play the game. In the past, it was common to include an electrical or electromechanically operated coin receiver and switch to activate a game, wherein a user would insert a monetary coin, such as a quarter, into a coin slot to activate the game. In some mechanical games, the game itself is played with a token such as a circular coin or circular metal disk. Therefore, it was generally necessary to provide some source of tokens, whether monetary coins, or non-monetary tokens, in the general vicinity of the games so that the users could buy the tokens to play the games.
In the past, arcades would provide tokens to customers in exchange for some amount of money in various different ways. In some arrangements, a teller or clerk would be present to provide users with tokens, whether monetary coins or non-monetary tokens, in exchange for money from the users. Later, separate mechanized and/or electromechanical change and token dispensing machines were provided within the general vicinity of an arcade, whereby a user would insert money, such as paper bills or metal coins, into the dispenser and in return would receive some set number of tokens for playing the games in the arcade. More recently, with the increased usage of credit or pre-paid cards in lieu of cash, token dispensing machines have been modified to include credit card readers either in addition to or in the alternative from paper and coin cash acceptors. With these systems, a user swipes the card in the card reader and a computer processor within the token dispenser communicates with a local central transaction server, a bank, or other such system or credit clearing organization to ascertain whether the card is authorized for use. If the credit card is so authorized for use, the token dispenser will dispense a certain number of tokens appropriate to some charge that is allocated to the account of the credit card holder. In each of these arrangements, the teller or the token dispenser is generally located in some central area of the arcade but spaced away from the individual game devices such that a user would have to walk away from a game device to obtain tokens from the token dispenser and then return to the game device. The problem with this type of arrangement, however, is that it causes the user to walk away from the game device itself, and during that time the user is not able to play the game, may lose his/her station at the game to another person, and/or may simply lose interest in playing the game. To the owner of the arcade, however, it is preferable to have the game device be played as continually as possible and with as few interruptions in play time as possible in order to maximize the revenue from the arcade.
One way to address some of these concerns is shown in FIG. 1, wherein a token dispenser 10 is located immediately adjacent to a game device 11. The game device 11 requires a token, such as a coin or non-monetary token, to be inserted into a token receiver slot 12 in order to play the game. The token dispenser 10 is carried within a cabinet 13 which can be opened or closed and locked so as to prevent unauthorized access to tokens in the token dispenser 10. A card reader 14, a coin cup 15, and a warning light 16 are located on the exterior of the cabinet 13. To obtain tokens to play the game device 11, a user swipes a credit or pre-paid card in the card reader 14 and, assuming the card is found to be authorized, the token dispenser 10 dispenses a set number of tokens into the coin cup 15 for access by the user. Electronic sensors in or on the token dispenser 10 sense when the token dispenser 10 is out of tokens, and an electronic circuit will cause the warning light 16 to be turned on continually when the token dispenser 10 is empty of tokens. Although effective, there are some drawbacks to this arrangement. First, locating a cabinet 13 adjacent to each game device 11 takes up a significant amount of space that may otherwise be occupied by other game devices. Thus, if the arcade has limited space which is normal, the number of revenue generating game devices 11 that the owner could place in the space would be diminished, and thereby the overall potential revenue generating stream of the arcade could also be negatively impacted due to the fewer number of game devices 11 in the location. Another drawback of this arrangement is that there may be down time or non-use time of the game device 11 if the token dispenser 10 is out of tokens when the user needs to purchase tokens. Because the warning light 16 only activates when the token dispenser 10 is out of tokens, an operator of the arcade has no advance warning to refill the token dispenser 10 prior to the time the token dispenser 10 is empty. While FIG. 1 shows the token dispenser 10 immediately adjacent the game device 11, this is partially for convenience, and in practice, many times the token dispenser 10 is located far removed from the game device 11. As such, a game player must walk across the entire arcade to get tokens. The biggest problem with this arrangement is that players often get distracted when travelling between game device 11 and the token dispenser 10.
In order to overcome some of the drawbacks of the arrangements, some owners of game devices retrofit the game device 11 with a token dispenser 10, card reader 14, coin cup 15, and warning light 16 directly into a cabinet 17 of the game device 11. Although this arrangement can overcome some of the problems with space limitations and distracted gamers, the currently known method of installing the token dispenser 10 and other components into the cabinet 17 is cumbersome and costly because each installation is a custom installation. For example, it is currently known to install the token dispenser to the inside of the cabinet 17 with specially crafted wood braces and support members, which must be custom cut and fit for each different cabinet and game device. Because of the custom nature of the installation, such installation can take a substantial amount of time and therefore can be a relatively costly procedure.